Red, The Colour of Desire
by Jeanne Prouvaire
Summary: Basically the epitome of Mary Sue fics. My friend Annie got a plot bunny which bothered her until we wrote this! Modern AU. Set in a carehome, but careworkers don't feature much because both Enjolras and Courfeyrac are 16 and can take care of themselves and others.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 - A New Life**

**Like it says in the summary, basically the epitome of a Mary sue fic. There is literally nothing else to say. Made in collaboration with the great Annie.**

Three children were huddled in the corner of a dank, dark cellar. Water dripped off the walls and rats scurried in the soggy darkness. "Do you think they've gone to bed yet?" asked one in a whisper. Sophie had always been scared of her aunt and uncle. Most people were. Even their daughter, Miriam was. Annie wasn't scared but she didn't like them which had broadly the same effect.

They got up and slowly crept out of the cellar. The house was dark and still. All the lights were out in the pub next door. No one would see them leave. They slipped out of the house and into the night.

Huddling together in the ruins of an old, bombed out house, Miriam started to sing a lullaby that Cosette had taught them. _There is a castle on a cloud; I like to go there in my sleep_... The words were comforting but absolutely useless under the circumstances, as their sleep was riddled with nightmares of beatings and rat bites.

The cold grey dawn woke them from the exhausted sleep that comes with nightmares. They knew the only place that would be safe for them to go was the care home Les Amis de l'ABC where Éponine and Gavroche lived.

Les Amis de l'ABC wasn't very far to walk but was in a much nicer part of town. Miriam climbed up a tree and knocked on a window. From the ground Sophie and Annie couldn't see what was happening but they could hear the quiet murmur of voices. The front door opened to reveal Éponine standing there in her pyjamas. They hurried inside. "Miriam, go and have the first wash, the bathroom is the door opposite the stairs. You two come and wait in my room."

When they were clean and dressed in Éponine's clothes, they went down to the kitchen to have breakfast. One of the care workers came in. They weren't around much, since two of the inhabitants of the house were 16 years old and could take care of themselves and the others most of the time, the staff were only there to cook the main meals and provide counselling for those who needed it. This one looked like she had been about to go home.

"Épon..." looking shocked, she trailed off. The girls were thin and covered in bruises, cuts and scars. "I'll go and get some rooms made up." And she backed away.

There was a loud thumping on the stairs, as if a herd of elephants had taken up residence and begun to dance. A group of boys poured into the kitchen. They stopped short when they saw the girls at the table. "I'm sure you remember my sister and cousin," a boy with dark curly hair and green eyes jerked his head in the direction of Annie and raised his brows questioningly, "and this is Annie, the daughter of my mother's deceased best friend."

A small, pale boy came in moaning, "There's mud everywhere and a bit of blood too, we'll all catch some plague or other and die. It's so unhygienic," Annie raised an eyebrow. A boy with curly black hair and dark eyes snorted, exchanging a grin and a friendly wave with Miriam, and a boy who looked similar rolled his eyes. "Annie, Sophie, Miriam, this is Marius," pointing to the boy with dark hair and green eyes, "Grantaire and Courfeyrac," the boys with black hair and dark eyes, "Jean, or Jehan" A small boy with a dreamer's hazel eyes, who was admiring Annie's taste in shoulder length, strawberry blonde hair, which was coincidentally identical to his own – "Joly," the small, pale boy, "and Enjolras" – a strikingly handsome, perhaps slightly older boy with curly golden hair and bright blue eyes. Miriam leaned over to whisper in the Openly-Staring-Annie's ear –

"Ah, the famous Enjolras. He may be _the_ most gorgeous guy you have ever laid eyes on, but 'Ponine and Grantaire told me about him. He doesn't know there's such a species as Girls. Or guys, unfortunately for poor R."

"R?"

"Grantaire."

"Oh, the one you _like_."

"Shut _up!_ R is my best friend, all right?"

"_Right…_"

"If I _liked_ him I wouldn't put up with him constantly moaning to me about his crush on _Apollo_… Sorry – Enjolras. Oh, wait, I wasn't supposed to tell you that, he hasn't told anyone but me that he's bisexual yet."

"Stop changing the subject, and yes you would put up with it, you're you."

"Fine, I like him, OK?! Wait, I don't like that look in your eye… You wouldn't tell him, would you…? WOULD you?! Annie! You wouldn't! Hey, I caught you making eyes at Enjolras, I don't _care_ if making you confess you like him means I have to deal with _two_ of you moping after him, I'll tell him you were ogling him if you even _think_ about telling 'Taire I.. ANNIE!"

At this point they noticed that everyone else had gone, mainly because Éponine had come in to find out what all the fuss was about, and to direct her twin up to one room and Annie to another. Miriam contented herself with pulling an "I am going to eat you alive if you say _anything_" face, swiftly followed by a pleading "no seriously, please don't tell my friend that I like him" face when she realised that Annie probably wouldn't take her even remotely seriously, and finally flounced up off the stairs after her sister.

**No prizes for guessing what my full first name is ;)**

**I would just like to point out that I don't actually have a crush on Grantaire. I don't even think that George Blagden is more than a tiny bit cute. My Les Mis crush is on ENJOLRAS. Well, basically on Aaron Tveit, but the fic was Annie's idea, not mine, therefore she decided on the ships.**

**Review please?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 - Friendzoned**

**OK, triple update. We kind of wrote A LOT before we actually bothered to post. Sorry we made Enjolras a bit of a jerk in the next couple of chapters. Please don't flame! It wasn't me! I would never make him a jerk if it were just my fic! But it is kind of crucial to the plot thus far.**

**Hugs,**

**Miri and Annie!**

Breakfast was a very noisy affair, with Grantaire and Annie having a heated discussion about whether impressionist art or traditional art was better. Screaming at each other at the top of one's lungs does not get anything done when one is trying to eat breakfast. After a bit Grantaire stomped over to the fridge to get another cola. A few years in the future he would realise that caffeine didn't give you half as much of a kick as alcohol but for the moment he had to have some way of dealing with his sorrows other than beleaguering Miriam with them.

But in the end it was too noisy for some – "**WOULD YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!**" Enjolras shouted. This didn't really help, it just added to the noise. No one listened, but the noise level came down once people began to eat. Well, sort of, the amount of food consumed made a rather intrusive noise while they were chewing.

After breakfast they were all sent into the garden as Enjolras had to do more coursework – again. He seemed to do nothing _but_ coursework to Annie. She honestly didn't think he needed to work that hard, he was really smart anyway. She sighed, wanting to go back into the house to get a book, but risked having a 1000 page textbook thrown at her head. Well, she decided to just wing it. "I told you to stay outside!" Enjolras shouted and threw a book at her. Annie caught the book. She decided she didn't much like him, whatever Miriam and 'R' thought. She threw the book back at him; it hit him solidly on the side of the head. It gave her the chance to go and get her novel. She pelted back through the house, not wanting to get another book to the head, even if it didn't hit her. But then Annie had an idea. She mentally thanked Roald Dahl for such good plotlines. Annie found some red food colouring and poured it into Enjolras' shampoo bottle. Thankfully the bottle was opaque so he wouldn't notice the colour change. Hey, he should be grateful it was his favourite colour.

A shout woke her in the morning. "GRANTAIRE!" She pulled her dressing gown on and rushed to find the source of all the noise. In the kitchen stood Enjolras. She collapsed on the floor with laughter. His hair was a bright blood red. _Serves him right_ she thought. "Why would you do this?" Enjolras said through gritted teeth. He obviously didn't find it as funny as everyone else. In fact, by the look on his face she could tell he didn't find it at all amusing.

"Honestly, it wasn't me! I promise! I'm flattered you thought it was, but there is another genius at work here." exclaimed Grantaire. Enjolras scowled. He was secretly rather fond of his oh-so-perfect blond locks. By the look of it, the amount of time and money spent on it to make it look like that should reasonably involve having about the same amount of hair as the Disney Rapunzel. But he didn't.

"Who did then?"

"I did." Grinned Annie, raising her hand. There were a few shocked gasps and some smothered (or at least they were meant to be smothered) giggles. Enjolras chucked a piece of toast at Annie, and after that a full scale food fight broke out until Annie managed to pull a fist full of his hair out and he ran off to his room in a rage. She felt guilty, but then only for a little while and all that had disappeared after a round of cheering from the other kids.

"We've all been trying to take him down a peg or two for ages! I can't believe you finally succeeded!" Grantaire crowed, jubilant. She grinned at him and then went to her room to get cleaned up and dressed. Feeling happy with herself, she went back down to have breakfast. "That was rather mean you know," Sophie told her. Annie sighed. Sophie was so good natured she wouldn't be able to tell evil from good if it shouted in her face. "I know it was mean, but he was being such a git." Annie replied.

By the end of the week, Enjolras' hair was a rather fetching pale pink, but no one commented. Although Annie was the victor, she still had a large scratch on her side where he had pushed her into the corner of the table. Cold glares were all that passed between them. The others were getting tired of it. Miriam dragged Annie into the living room. Grantaire came in after them dragging Enjolras. "Say sorry or I will lock both of you in here until you can be in the same room together without burning a hole in something from all your glaring." Miriam said. They had no idea that she would lock them in together anyway as both of them were far too stubborn to apologise without starting another fight.

When Miriam let them out after an hour, Annie came out in tears. "What happened?" Miriam asked suspiciously. Annie just shook her head and hid in her room for the rest of the day with only a book for company. She didn't come out for dinner, nor for breakfast the next morning. Miriam only saw her at school a few times. No one saw her for days afterwards.

"What the _Hell_ did you do, Apollo?" Grantaire demanded. Enjolras was just as bewildered as anyone else.

Miriam finally cornered Annie that evening.

"Why have you been avoiding everyone?" Annie sighed. Miriam raised an eyebrow. "Ok, ok, I feel guilty. It felt like hitting a puppy, it's just he was being such an idiot..." She trailed off. Then she grinned.

"And how's Grantaire?" It was Miriam's turn to sigh, in exasperation, but she blushed as well.

"Still pining over his 'Apollo'." Annie laughed delightedly at her reaction. Miriam rolled her eyes, and then grinned, "Sophie and Joly seem to get on very well. I think I might have to take her aside and explain the whole thing with Musichetta and Bossuet. There _really_ isn't room for _anyone_ else in Joly's life right now. I still wonder whether they've thought about what exactly they're gonna do when they're, err… over 16." They both began to giggle helplessly. They were still giggling when a rather bemused Courfeyrac came up to them, bearing a new DVD of Billy Elliot and a hopeful expression. "What are you two sniggering at?" He asked. They couldn't reply as they were laughing too much.

Then Enjolras came down the corridor. Annie stopped laughing at once. She drew in a deep breath "I'msorryIdyedyourhairredandthengotinafightwithyou ." She said in a rush. Even though he probably didn't understand a word she was saying, he got the gist.

"Sorry." Then they both turned and fled in opposite directions. Courfeyrac and Miriam both rolled their eyes and sighed and Miriam started to laugh again. This time Courfeyrac had to join in. The sight of the pair of them doing exactly the same thing was too much. They were just too similar.

Life at Les Amis de l'ABC became much easier for everyone after that. Miriam even managed to drag Grantaire into watching Broadway musicals on Friday evenings with her, Courfeyrac and Jehan, that was how good everyone's mood was. Well, Annie and Enjolras still didn't like each other much, but apart from that everything was fine. But one thing was rather weird. Annie and Jehan had literally identical hair and they were almost the same height. Annie was starting to get annoyed at people getting her name wrong. One day, the twins and Grantaire decided that this was too good a prank opportunity to allow to go to waste, and carefully went out on a shopping trip to buy identical blue T-shirts and pink skinny jeans (blue shirt Annie's taste, pink jeans more Jehan's kind of thing) which they left at the forefront of the pair's wardrobes with notes saying

_I know you're on a bit of a budget but you really need more clothes. Blame 'Ponine for style, _And signed _R_ for Jehan's clothes, _M_ for Annie's.

The result of them coming down the next morning wearing identical hideous clothes was mainly that everyone rolled around laughing, but Courfeyrac then ran upstairs, grinning like a Cheshire cat and muttering something about "Last year's non-school-uniform day", and Miriam and Grantaire suddenly looked horrified and legged it after him, hollering about Blazers for some reason. The day after that, everyone woke up to find a picture, pinned to the fridge, of a slightly-younger-looking Miriam and 'Taire, with their arms around each other and wearing what appeared to be the masculine and feminine version of THE SAME TEAL GREEN BLAZER JACKET, along with identical evil grins, dark curls, and, in one case, a slight blush, probably due to the rather close proximity of her friend's arm to her waist. The faces of the usually cheerful double-act promptly drained of all colour, and Simultaneous Swearing ensued. Enjolras, for a change, looked as though Christmas had come early, and drew in a breath to make sure that neither of them, especially R, his usual victim of disdain, ever forgot this. Just then, Grantaire met his eyes, and the ghost of an indiscernible emotion flickered within his own. Almost… outright _hatred_. Not the usual mixture that so often played over his face when he talked about Enjolras' attitude to him at all. Miriam still recognised the warning signs, however, and dragged R from the room before he could say anything, ignoring the resulting wolf-whistles and calls of "Where are you two going off together?" from their dirty-minded housemates.

"Yes, I know Enj has been behaving like a jerk since Annie messed with his hair, but you were about to say something. Whatever was going to come out of your mouth, it wasn't going to make life any easier for you. Seriously, 'Taire, if he hasn't noticed you like him by the end of term, he isn't worth it. I've yet to see him do anything better than look gorgeous to make me think he deserves you. From what I've seen, he doesn't."

_And I can't bear to break your poor little heart by telling you that Courf has plans for him and Annie_, she finished in her head, but she could never say that aloud.

Grantaire groaned and put his head down on the living room table at which they were sitting.

"I need a coffee." Miriam pressed a mug of the stuff which she had made for herself into his hands. Grantaire gave her a pathetically grateful look which melted her already battered heart, and downed it in one. "Thanks, Mim. You're the best." Miriam swallowed hard, and ducked back into the kitchen, blinking back the tears that statement in its context had brought on. He would never say it how she wished he had meant.

"I'd say 'Did you have fun?', but now doesn't look like a great time to wind you up about your male best friend, so I'll just shut up now." Commented Courf. Miriam made an exasperated noise, picked up her cereal and ran up to her room, slamming the door behind her. Ten minutes later there was a knock, and the other three girls filed in, sitting on the end of the sobbing girl's bed.

"Looks like someone just got friendzoned." Remarked Éponine. _Ah, yes, my fraternal twin, the queen of tact. Ten minutes age difference is _not_ a good reason to mother someone, in my opinion._

"Subtle." Sophie stated. For someone so angelic, she did possess a sarky side. Annie draped an arm around Miriam's shoulders, as Éponine explained

"Two of us have been there, remember? Actually, look at me, I'm _still_ here! And of course everyone needs a friend with a heart of marble to give them largely useless counselling on unrequited affection which the friend in question has never experienced, and since Exhibit A is still down in the kitchen, mocking your bestie-slash-crush, Exhibit B has come to offer moral support, although I think possibly only on the basis of attempting to do exactly the opposite of whatever Exhibit A is doing. That makes three of us."

"Thanks guys, I love you all so much right now. Why are guys all so _blind_?... Wait, did you say that dear _Apollo_ is still giving R grief now? That's it, I'm joining your Enjolras Is a Jerk campaign if he doesn't drop it, Annie, surely he must have _some_ idea of the pain he puts poor 'Taire through! Seriously, I thought Enj seemed a nice enough guy when I met him, if completely oblivious to affection of any kind. Come on, we have to go and rescue R!"

Annie ran downstairs into the kitchen. "Come on, Grantaire, he isn't worth talking to." she said, dragging her best friend's crush behind her while mentally burning a hole in the rest of the boys. She dragged him up to Miriam's room, where the inhabitant was still crying on the end of the bed. Then she had a Lightbulb Moment. "Sophie, 'Ponine, come on I want to talk to you." They caught onto her idea and rushed out of the room as quickly as humanly possible. Giggling, Annie locked the door behind her. They could still hear Miriam's small sniffs coming from inside the room. Before the two inside the room could start protesting they had escaped back into the kitchen.

After ten minutes of waiting they heard a loud thump. Annie raced upstairs with everyone hot on her heels. She reached Miriam's room and crouched down to look through the key hole. Miriam and 'Taire were standing in the doorway, hugging. Annie backed away quickly, not wanting to watch. "That went well." Annie said, grinning. She started to giggle again. "Well, define well; I would say that it went really, really well, no actually better than really well. That was the best idea you have ever had, Annie." Éponine cried, delighted.

**Yay friendly fluff! Incidentally, I had to write the whole of the next chapter MYSELF.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 - No Privacy**

**DON'T LAUGH. I spent a lot of time on this fluff. Comments of 'awww' are acceptable. Falling over laughing is NOT. *CoughAnnieCough***

"Annie, I am going to _murder_ you!" Miriam growled, when Annie finally relented and let them out. "Actually, no, that would be too good for you. 'Ponine, we have some plotting to do." Annie felt very scared. Very, very scared. "Uh oh, Annie, hide!" 'Roche laughed. She nodded and fled. She hid in the attic. It was the only place where no one would think to look for her because there were no books up there. The attic was warm and soon she fell asleep. But she didn't notice the excited plotting whispers coming up the attic ladder.

Meanwhile, Miriam, Grantaire, Éponine, Courfeyrac, and Jehan were sitting around the coffee table in the living room and trying to come up with revenge for Annie's intrusion. Well, Courf, Jehan and 'Ponine were, Miriam and 'Taire were chatting in falsely bright voices about Nothing In Particular, hoping to forget the awkwardness of Annie's TOTAL misinterpretation of their friendship.

"...And Apollo still has literally NO IDEA, I mean, I should probably _say_ something, but he clearly hates my guts."

"He doesn't hate your guts; he just has a long-standing and honourable tradition of arguing with you. Come on, R, _I_ have a long standing and honourable tradition of arguing with you, doesn't mean I hate your guts!" _Quite the opposite..._ she thought, and inwardly sighed again. When he had hugged her earlier...

"Guys, what are you bickering about now?" inquired Courfeyrac. "It's your reputations we're avenging here."

"Nothing!" They chorused. Courf shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"At least try to give me a reason to help you. Try not to unintentionally sow doubt over the 'Just Friends' mantra which we're endeavouring to uphold here."

"We aren't!"

"Sorry, you are." That was Jehan. Miriam couldn't believe this! Sweet, innocent little Jehan was now turning against them!

"How can you even suggest that?!" She cried, and threw her arms into the air.

"Because it's true." Why did Courf have to agree with everything Jehan said? "Because – Miriam, I'm really, really sorry about this, but you should have told him, I can't believe he hasn't noticed yet, we all have – Grantaire, Miriam likes you."

"Should hope so, she's my best friend, she... Oh. Wait, _what_?! Like that?" Really?!" He turned to face Miriam, who had gone white with shock.

"Why would you ruin _everything_?" She spat, furious at Courfeyrac, even at Jehan, and dashed up to her room. There she collapsed in a heap, and allowed the tears to come. There was no point trying to stop them now. Then, a tentative knock on the door.

"Mim?" _His _voice, his pet name for her.

"Go _away_!" Grantaire was the last person she wanted to see right now. She heard the door creak open, and raised her head from her hands. There he stood, framed in the doorway, leaning on the wall. "I _said, _go AWAY! I don't want to talk to you right now, R." He sighed, and crouched down, so their faces were on the same level.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"You fancy _Apollo_, and I wasn't about to ruin our friendship _and_ break my own heart at the same time, I thought I might as well save myself an inevitable disappointment."

"Honestly? I've been going off Enj for a while."

"Could have fooled me."

"I still think he's gorgeous, and I still wish he didn't hate me, it's just that... why would I still like someone who despises me? I liked him for his personality too; his loyalty to friends, but lately all he cares about is schoolwork and scoring points against Annie and me. I haven't even seen him smile since she turned up."

Miriam was shocked. R had 'gone off' his Apollo? He had practically worshipped the guy since they started secondary school! But, actually, it kind of made sense. Grantaire had often said that his favourite things about Enjolras were his personality and his smile, both of which had vanished when he started to focus more on his coursework.

"So you... aren't in love with Enjolras?"

Grantaire sighed again. "No, I'm not in love with _Enjolras_, Mim."

"Wha –" Before Miriam knew what was happening, his mouth was on hers, one arm around her waist, the other hand cradling the back of her head. She was too astonished to do anything but let him kiss her. When she realised what was going on, she tentatively lifted her face to him; and, hesitantly, she kissed him back.

Who knew how long they were there, all sense of time was lost in that perfect moment as Grantaire deepened the kiss. Dimly, they became aware of faint noises in the background, but it wasn't until a triumphant "Ha!" echoed throughout the room that they opened their eyes, registered that every single one of their friends (even Annie had come out of hiding) was standing in the hallway, staring wide-eyed at the mortified pair, who still had their foreheads touching and arms around each other.

"You left the door open, R?" Miriam asked weakly, looking up into his wide, dark, long-lashed eyes.

"Sorry."

"Why did I have to fall for someone who doesn't even remember to shut the door before they start kissing a girl?"

"Because I'm just too adorable that way."

"Ha ha."

At this point, they both realised that the whole reason they were there was standing in the doorway, looking a bit miffed that no one had paid any attention to her derisive cry of "Ha!" Miriam disentangled herself and turned to face Annie. "You." At this point, Annie adopted the look of a rabbit caught in headlights, having realised that if Miriam and Grantaire had been annoyed at her before, they would be _livid_ now. Overcoming this moment of concern, however, she resumed grinning triumphantly.

"Yeah?" she inquired lazily.

Miriam looked at R. R looked at Miriam. Suddenly their faces split once again into identical grins.

"Thanks." they said, as one person.

"Wait, what?" asked Annie. Miriam guessed that Annie had expected them to be beating her to a pulp right about now.

"Thank you for making this happen. Without you and your conniving ways, I wouldn't have just kissed the girl I've been trying to deny to myself that I like for two weeks." explained Grantaire.

"Wait", demanded Miriam, "You mean you've had a crush on me since we got here and you didn't even tell _yourself_?"

"Look who's talking, how long have you liked me for?"

"Three years. Darn it 'Taire, why did you have to point that out?"

"Just doing my duty, for I am Super – 'Taire, defending the world from the evils of hypocrisy!"

"No, you're not; you just like to argue with me."

"Hey, it isn't _just_ arguing I like…."

At this point they started kissing again, and a lot of awkward coughing went on while the rest of the Amis tried to process the idea of MiriamandGrantaire and wished they were somewhere other than this room where the two 'friends' were completely oblivious to the rest of the world. Annie raised her eyebrows –

"Wait, you're forgiving me?" Miriam dismissively flapped a hand at her and pointed at the door, giving off a general vibe on the theme of 'Scat'. Everyone shuffled out and left them to it. They all filed down the stairs and into the living room, where they all collapsed onto the sofa. Awkwardness took place. It came to a head ten minutes later when the two to blame for said awkwardness walked in and sat down together in an armchair across from everyone else. Courfeyrac finally broke the silence.

"I'm going to say it now. Had fun?"

Several things happened at once. More than a few people rolled their eyes and/or laughed, Miriam and R looked as if they didn't know whether to be irritated or amused, and there were various shouts ranging from "Courf, you have literally got the dirtiest mind in Paris." through "Yeah, we're still 14 and 15 here, Fey." and "Now you mention it, ye – ow! You can't hit me, you love me!" to "He_llo_, 9 year old younger brother here!". This was swiftly followed by Miriam's mildly amused statement of –

"True, that. Gav, feel free to go back upstairs now." He nodded and fled, along with Annie.

**Reviews for more fluff?**


End file.
